Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Above) Reggiani leads Wimmer in the 250cc race; (below) Mang (5) vs. Lavado racing for second place. Fast Freddie Spencer after w inning the 250cc race; he lea ds both 500 cc 250cc points standings. ' Rothmans H onda Brita in mach ine led o ff th e sta rt bu t on the first lap Mamola took ove r a nd o n lap tw o T akazumi Kata yama crashe d as he battled with Spe ncer for fourth pl ace. The j apanese ace hurt th e vertebra e th at he injured when h e crashed in Imola at th e end of 1983. Spencer hit the haybal e a t a bo u t 100 mph wh en h e went to take second place from H aslam . The force of th e im pac t almost kn ocked h im off the mach ine an d h e sli p ped back to fifth as La wso n, H a slam a nd G ardner a ll swept past. Despite th e pain, Spen cer sta rte d to rep ass th ose in front wh ile Lawson took the lead from Marnola. By lap six Spencer was once more second behind th e World Champion. Spencer was still tr ying but ha ving problems and he ran into th e roug h o ff the tarmac several ti mes. H e was forced to relax th e p ace eventua lly a nd was slowly overhauled by Mamol a . Californian Mamola took second place on lap 21 of the 32 after pull ing away from a fierce all-Honda-three bailie with Haslam and Gardner. If Mamola had designs on catch ing Lawson th ey were unfortunatel y illfounded because he crashed unhurt two la ps later when the back tir e slid away. " T he bike wa s hopping real badly as 1 was hard on th e brakes. 1 got off th e brakes and on th e gas but the back end just kept hopping and it slid 'ro u nd on me. There I was lying in th e grass thinking ' Hell, wh y me . . Spen cer might consid er himself luck y to be handed back two po ints an d h e rode on to th e fin ish a head o f G ardner . who had gotten a way from H aslam. Fren ch men Ch ristian Sa rron a nd Raym ond Roch e, bo th on V-Iour Yarn ahas, had a race-long ba ili e for fifth th at was resol ved in fa vor o f Sarro n wh en Roch e fa iled to rea lize it was th e last la p. Rob McEl nea j ust fai led to bea t Belgian Did ier de R ad igu es to th e line on his Skoal Ban dit Suzu ki a fter a good ride to fin ish eighth, in wh ich he beat off th e attacks o f H o nda mounted priva tee rs G ustav Reiner and Dave Petersen . ,t tt La wso n is looking for wa rd to the Dutch TT a t Assen wh ich sta rts th e seco nd half of th e 12-race Cha mpionship sea son even though he is stil l. seven points behind Spencer in the Championship. Lawson qualified on the pole at Assen last sea son. " We still need some more speed from the bike a n d who knows , maybe we'll get something from the factory. Even if we don 't , Assen is the sort of ci rc u it where we m ight get away with it ," Lawson sa id . Freddie Spen cer dominated the 250cc race in the sty le that h as become his trademark. This time h e wa s even more d efinite thanks to a better-thanusual start and he tailed leader Martin Wimmer into the first corner. It was no Sunday-afternoon cr u ise for th e Am erican because a fter Wimmer's Ya ma ha went sick ea rly on Carlos Lavado took up th e chase a n d hung on grimly as Spencer fought to ex tend hi s initial three-second lead. Spencer worked hard until in th e latter third of the ra ce he was six seconds in front but it meant running up th e cu rb on several occasions. "I wish Carl os would take it ea sy so meti mes a nd g ive me a rest ," sa id Spencer. ',' When he's behind yo u, yo u ca n' t ease up a t a ll, h e's a hard charger. he nev er gives up a nd 1 wa s o n the gas a ll th e wa y. The time 1 ra n on th e gra ss I wa s in third when 1 shou ld h ave got back to seco nd an d I thought it was better just to run on the grass rather th an knock it down into secon d in ca se the rear wheel locked up." La vado , wh o had crashe d while leading h ere in 1984, wa s in grea t form and kept u p a co nsistent pursu it eve n th ough he co u ld no t close th e gap. From lap four Toni Man gmoved into th ird p la ce but cou ld no t ca tch Lavado: Mang 's H onda lost power ver y badl y o n la p 2 1 of the 30. H e slowed as the engi ne was ru nning on o ne cylinder ; th e fairi ng mount had bro ken a nd fallen on the plug cap, whi ch broke. Wimmer rode ha rd to fini sh fourth behind Loris R egg ia n i. "T he bike seized 25 times, on every lap as 1 shut the throttle a t the end of th e straight, a nd every time I doubted whether it would run again, yo u know 1 a m so luck y to fini sh , It is cra zy because we hav e a faster en gi ne but 1 us ed th e older one because it ha s been more rel ia ble." Aft er dropping ba ck to eighth on lap eight Wimmer ca me to terms w ith th e en gi ne a nd coa xed it ba ck into co ntentio n, H e ca ugh t th e group cha si ng Mang , who was third , a n d fought with Siggi Minich o n h is priva te Yamaha , Ca r los Ca rd us on the Cobas and Loris R eggian i on the Aprili a . Cardus wa s riding well, started to pull clea r of the group, and was well in front when he crashed on lap 21. With the demise of Mang that th en left Wimmer , Reggiani and Minich fig h tin g for third. Some distance behind th em Reinhold Roth was leading Rommer tea m ma te H arald Eckl, Pierre Bolle o n th e Parisienne an d th e Parisienne H onda o f j acques Cornu. Alan Carter had been with this group until h e crashed unhurt on lap 16. The final points scorer was j ean Louis Gu ignabodet on his Rotax -powered MIG specia l. The main exciteme nt was th e threeway bailie for th ir d a nd Wimmer tri ed to g et a way from Reggiani but th e seizin g engi ne m ade it im possible and th e Italian flashed over the line to gain th e third pl ace. Minich wa s a fir st class fifth, hi s best result of th e seas on. " It wa s no trouble to fo llow th e o the rs a nd five laps before the end I th ought th at fifth wa s better th an crash ing a nd decided to stay th ere," sai d th e Aus tria n . T ITe 80cc World Cham pion, Stefa n Dorfl in ger, rode a well-j udged race to wi n by 1.5 seco nds fro m Spaniard j orge 'Aspa r' Ma rtinez o n th e works Der bi . T he Krauser was a liule slow off th e line but Derflin ger was up in to third p lace just ahead of Mart in ez by the end of th e fir st la p whil e Austrian Gerd Kafk a led from German Gerhard Waibel. T h e Sw iss ac e stayed in thi rd p lace while Waibel led briefl y on lap three but th en took the lead h imself closel y fo llowed by th e red Derbi, Martinez to ok over o n lap eight bu t Dorflinger wa s h olding a little i n reserve and when he took th e lead again on lap 12 h e pulled away to win despite being troubled by th e little single jumping out of gear for much of the race. Manuel H erreros on the second Derbi worked his wa y through from a very poor start to finish third ahead o f Kafka a nd Waibel but the hero of th e race was Ian McConnachie, who was dead la st o ff th e line by about 10 seconds and storm ed through lapping faster than any one else for most of th e • race a n d finished eighth. Results 500cc: 1. Eddie Lewson (YemI49:46.65; 2. Freddie Spencer (Hon) 50: 8.41; 3. Weyne Gardne r (Hon) 50 :16.89; 4. Ron Haslam (Hon) 50 :24.60; 5. Christi an Sarr on (Yam) 50;57 .42; 6. Raymond Roche (Yam) 50:57.77; 7. Did ier de Radigues (Hon) 51;11 .49; 8. Rob McElnea(Suz)51 :11 .96; 9. Gustav Reiner (Han) 51 :12.26; 10. Dave Petersen (Hon ) 51 :12.54. DISTANCE:32 laps, 82.BB miles, 99.81 mph average; record lap Lewson 1 minute. 31 .78 seconds. 101.52 mp h, old record (1984) Spencer, 1:32.33. 100.98 mph. 50Dec a UAUFYING: 1. Spencer, 1:3 t .44; 2. Lewson, 1:32.00: 3. Gard ner. 1:32.46; 4. Haslam, 1:3 2.72; 5. Mamola, 1:32.77; 6. Sarron. 1:3 2.99; 7. Roche, 1;33 .63 ; 8. Katayama , 1:33 .81; 9. de Radigue•• 1:34 .03; McElnea . 1:34.78. 50Dec POINTS: 1. Spencer 81; 2. Lewson, 74; 3. sarron, 52; 4. Gardner, 43 ; 5. Haslam . 34; 6. (TIE) Randy Mamola (Hon)/de Radigues, 25: 8. (TIE) McElnea /Roche, 15; 10. M ike Baldwin (Honll0. 25Occ: 1. Freddie Spencer (Hon ) 47 :49.95 : 2. Carlos Levado (Yam) 47 :54.71 ; 3. Loris Reggian i (Ap r) 48 :34.72 ; 4. Manin W immer (Yam) 48 .35 .18; 5. s iggi Min ich (Yam) 48 :38.7; 6. Harald Eckl (Yam) 48 :58.80; 7. Reinhold Roth (Yam) 48 :59 .06 ; 8. Pierre Bolle (Par) 49 :02 .79; 9. Jacques Cornu (Hen) 49 :12. 22; 10. J.L Guignabodel (MIGI 49:07.8 2. DISTANCE; 30 laps, 77.70 miles. 97.40 mph aver age; recor d lap Spencer 1:34.80, 98 .29 mph . old record (19841 Levado 1:36.12. 97.00 mph. 250cc aUALlFYlNG: 1. Spencer, 1:33.99: 2. Lavedo, 1:34,42 ; 3. W immer. 1:34 .79; 4. Mang. 1:34.80; 5. Roth, 1:35.51 ; 6. Maniol i. 1:36 .21; 7. Reggian i,1 :36.25; 8. Cardus . 1:3 6.33; 9. Mi nich. 1:36.66; 10. Eckl, 1:36.7 1. 250c c POINTS: 1. Spencer , 74 ; 2. (TIE)Wim mer / Lav edo. 49; 4 . A nton Mang (Han) 48; 5 . Regg ia ni. 28 ; 6. Fau sto Ricci (Ha n) 22 ; 7 . Alan Cart er (Hon) 18; 8. Rot h, 13; 9. Carlos Cardus (Cob) 11; 10. M ar io Radem eyer (Yam) 10. 80c c: 1. S. Dorfl ing er IKra )31 :36,80; 2. J. Mart in ez(Der ) 31 :38.30; 3. M . Herr eros (Der ) 32 :09.64 ; 4. G. Waibel (Real 32 :14.81; 5. G. Kafka (See) 3 2:25.11; 6. R. Kunz (Zie) 32 :38 .91; 7. T. Timmer (H-C) 32 :43 .50; 8. I. McConn achi e IKra) 32 :49 .29; 9. H. van Kessel (H-C)32:53.01; 10. P. Rimm elzwaan (Ha) 32 :59.28. DISTANCE: 18 laps, 46.57 m iles , 88.4 2 mph aver age. record lap Dorf l in ger 1:4 2 .04, 9 1.3 2 mph, old record (19 84 1Dorfli nger 1:44, 46. 89.25 mph. aoee POINTS : 1. Dorf l in ger. 52; 2. Ma n in ez. 42: 3 . Herrercs. 32 ; 4 . W aibe l. 25 ; 5. Kafka. 24 ; 6. M cCo nnach ie. 19; 7 . Timmer. 13; 8 . Rimmelzw aan. 11; 9. (TIE) J .M . Velay (GMV) / s . Prein , 6. 7

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